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Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander

Color polymorphisms are associated with variation in other traits which may affect individual fitness, and these color‐trait associations are expected to contribute to nonrandom mating in polymorphic species. The red‐backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) exhibits a polymorphism in dorsal pattern: s...

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Autores principales: Jaworski, Kortney E., Lattanzio, Matthew S., Hickerson, Cari‐Ann M., Anthony, Carl D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6157696/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30271542
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4298
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author Jaworski, Kortney E.
Lattanzio, Matthew S.
Hickerson, Cari‐Ann M.
Anthony, Carl D.
author_facet Jaworski, Kortney E.
Lattanzio, Matthew S.
Hickerson, Cari‐Ann M.
Anthony, Carl D.
author_sort Jaworski, Kortney E.
collection PubMed
description Color polymorphisms are associated with variation in other traits which may affect individual fitness, and these color‐trait associations are expected to contribute to nonrandom mating in polymorphic species. The red‐backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) exhibits a polymorphism in dorsal pattern: striped and unstriped, and previous studies have suggested that they may mate nonrandomly. However, the mechanism(s) contributing to this behavior remain unclear. Here we consider the role that male preference may have in driving mating behavior in P. cinereus. We limit our focus to striped individuals because this morph is most likely to be choosy given their dominant, aggressive behavioral profiles relative to unstriped males. Specifically, we evaluated (a) whether striped males preferentially associate with females with respect to her dorsum color, size, and body condition and (b) if so, whether female traits are evaluated via visual or chemical cues. We also considered whether the frequency of another male social behavior, nose taps, was associated with mate preferences. We found that striped male P. cinereus nose tapped more often to preferred females. However, males only assessed potential mates via chemical cues, preferring larger females overall. Reproductive phenology data on a sample of gravid females drawn from the same population indicated that the color morphs do not differ in reproductive traits, but larger females have greater fecundity. Given our findings, we conclude that female P. cinereus are under fecundity selection, mediated by male preference. In this manner, male mating behavior contributes to observations of nonrandom mate associations in this population of P. cinereus.
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spelling pubmed-61576962018-09-29 Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander Jaworski, Kortney E. Lattanzio, Matthew S. Hickerson, Cari‐Ann M. Anthony, Carl D. Ecol Evol Original Research Color polymorphisms are associated with variation in other traits which may affect individual fitness, and these color‐trait associations are expected to contribute to nonrandom mating in polymorphic species. The red‐backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus) exhibits a polymorphism in dorsal pattern: striped and unstriped, and previous studies have suggested that they may mate nonrandomly. However, the mechanism(s) contributing to this behavior remain unclear. Here we consider the role that male preference may have in driving mating behavior in P. cinereus. We limit our focus to striped individuals because this morph is most likely to be choosy given their dominant, aggressive behavioral profiles relative to unstriped males. Specifically, we evaluated (a) whether striped males preferentially associate with females with respect to her dorsum color, size, and body condition and (b) if so, whether female traits are evaluated via visual or chemical cues. We also considered whether the frequency of another male social behavior, nose taps, was associated with mate preferences. We found that striped male P. cinereus nose tapped more often to preferred females. However, males only assessed potential mates via chemical cues, preferring larger females overall. Reproductive phenology data on a sample of gravid females drawn from the same population indicated that the color morphs do not differ in reproductive traits, but larger females have greater fecundity. Given our findings, we conclude that female P. cinereus are under fecundity selection, mediated by male preference. In this manner, male mating behavior contributes to observations of nonrandom mate associations in this population of P. cinereus. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2018-08-07 /pmc/articles/PMC6157696/ /pubmed/30271542 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4298 Text en © 2018 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Research
Jaworski, Kortney E.
Lattanzio, Matthew S.
Hickerson, Cari‐Ann M.
Anthony, Carl D.
Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander
title Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander
title_full Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander
title_fullStr Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander
title_full_unstemmed Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander
title_short Male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander
title_sort male mate preference as an agent of fecundity selection in a polymorphic salamander
topic Original Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6157696/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30271542
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.4298
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